File FIR against BJP, Congress for accepting Vedanta donation: Court

Updated: Saturday, January 18, 2014, 17:10 [IST]

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Panaji, Jan 18: Goa Police have been directed by a trial court to file a First Information Report (FIR) against both the Congress and the BJP state units for illegally accepting Rs.5 crore each from a foreign-registered mining company, Vedanta.

Vedanta Resources has a significant presence in the Goa mining sector.

The order, passed Friday evening by Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), follows a complaint by a government servant and Right to Information activist Kashinath Shetye, who has said that political parties had erred in accepting the donation from the UK-registered Vedanta Resources.

The police have been asked to file a compliance report before the court

"Prima facie, even the Election Commission of India has found this to be violative of the provisions of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and the Foreigner Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 as replaced by the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010," the order reads.

The police have been asked to file a compliance report before the court within a week.

Shetye, in his complaint, claimed that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, ex-BJP state president Laxmikant Parsenkar and current president Vinay Tendulkar and North Goa MP Shripad Naik had received donations from subsidiary companies of the Vedanta Group, including Sesa Goa, to regularise their illegal mining operations in the state.

Shetye also named top Congress leaders like south Goa MP Francisco Sardinha and former state president Subhash Shirodkar in his complaint, where he said that the party had received Rs.5 crore in 2003-04 from the company to regularise illegal mining in the state.